RCS Partners are the BEST

Meeting up with RCS Partners on the Road.

In this road trip edition, I want to share some of the amazing customer visits I have experienced. In the late spring of 2018, I was invited to visit Tremco, WTI, and Cotney Construction Law.

As some of you may know, my first job in the roofing industry was with Malarkey Roofing. I fell in love with plant tours. There is nothing better than walking through a roofing plant and seeing how our roofing materials are made. Well, I was able to do that at the Tremco plant. Flying into Cleveland, Ohio, the Tremco team first put together a National Women in Roofing event with many of the women of Tremco. The talent and passion of the women at the dinner was incredible.

Tremco has been a leader in supporting diversity and empowering women in their organization and the industry. As a diamond sponsor with NWIR, many of the ladies at the dinner also serve on the NWIR board and committees. We met over dinner and talked about the vast amount of opportunity in the roofing industry and how when we all work together we can really enable change. As women leadership they are focused on community service and recruiting women into roofing. They are all involved one way or another in empowering women inside and outside their organization.

The next day I had a tour of the Tremco headquarters, a LEED certified building, and WOW, it is cool. The building design incorporates water runoff reservoirs for irrigation, an incredible employee cafeteria and rooftop gardens. The remodel of the Tremco office building is truly inspiring but as I mentioned before, the plant tours were the highlight. I saw the testing labs and manufacturing plants. I cannot say a lot about all that I saw, but the amount of hard work and vision that has been implemented in Tremco over the last decade was obvious. Needless to say, the Cleveland segment of my trip was inspiring.

My next customer stop was in Tampa to visit the offices of Cotney Construction Law (CCL). Trent Cotney has been a partner of the Coffee Shop since 2016. I was able to visit with CCL lawyers who are extremely committed to construction law and very focused on roofing. In fact, many of the lawyers at CCL are also general counsel for organizations like NWIR, FRSA and TRI (Tile Roof Institute). I personally can say that anything concerning legal issues scare me and I bet that is how most of the roofing industry feels. But the Cotney team has a way of taking the stress away and doing what is right and just.

Outside their office, you can sometimes see alligators swimming in the nearby waterway, but in the office, it is all business and that business is booming. With over 30 lawyers and an amazing support staff, Cotney Construction Law is now in 10 states and growing. But while they are growing they are still extremely committed to their grassroots in the Florida market. At the Coffee Shop, we are just happy to know we have a law firm like Cotney Construction Law in our roofing industry.

Flying back to Oregon, I felt really blessed that we have partners who really are focused on our industry and showing that progressive thinking is alive and kicking in our craft.

From the Road,

Heidi

Heidi Ellsworth is owner of HJE Consulting Group and a partner in RoofersCoffeeShop®. See her full bio here.